The Wolfpacker

MAY 2014 ■ 27 building on what I accomplished this year. Hopefully, I'll win it two more times." Moving South When Gwiazdowski was a true fresh- man heavyweight making his debut at the 2012 NCAA Wrestling Championships for Binghamton University, the rookie made his debut at nationals against Nelson, who entered as the No. 2 seed. Nelson won that match, 8-0, to send Gwiazdowski to the consolation bracket, where if he lost again he would be eliminated from the competi- tion. The youngster accomplished one of the toughest feats in college wrestling by re- bounding from his first-round loss and win- ning five matches in a row and eventually placing eighth to earn All-America honors with a final mark of 30-9. Meanwhile, Nel- son went on to win his first of two straight national championships. Binghamton head coach Pat Popolizio took the NC State coaching job in April 2012 and convinced Gwiazdowski to fol- low him to Raleigh. Both are upstate New York natives, and the heavyweight was coached growing up by Popolizio's brother, Frank. There was a long-standing relation- ship and trust between the families. Assistant coach Frank Beasley, who also made the move from Binghamton, even predicted that the move would allow Gwi- azdowski to become a three-time national champion. The odds looked long at the time with a defending champion still eli- gible, but now the redshirt sophomore has proved that it was more than just a recruit- ing ploy. "I told him this was a place that had a lot of resources," Popolizio remembered. "Ultimately, that's why I came down here myself. I knew we could have success and it wouldn't take as long as it did at other schools because of the resources that are in place. "To win at a high level, you have to have everything in place. We still have a lot of work to do to build the whole team aspect of it, but there's a lot that is offered here where some schools aren't as fortunate." The move that the duo made once Gwi- azdowski arrived in Raleigh —redshirting a returning All-American who came out of high school ranked as the top heavyweight in the land — may seem unorthodox, but it allowed him to settle into his new sur- roundings. He went 20-1 in open tourna- ments with the lone loss coming to Nelson, while adding muscle to approach his cur- rent weight of 250 pounds — heavyweights can weigh up to 285 pounds, and some even cut weight to get under that limit. The payoff came this March, when Gwi- azdowski earned the No. 2 seed after an outstanding regular season and then beat the top-seeded Nelson. "Redshirting was worth it for this," Gwi- azdowski said. "This is the pinnacle of the sport. Sitting out last year was difficult, but at every tournament last year, I saw the other guys competing and told myself next year would be my year. "I just focused a lot on myself. I knew that even though I didn't wrestle, I could compete with all of the top-tier guys. It wasn't that they were that much better than me — I just didn't get the opportunity to wrestle them." Familiar Foes Gwiazdowski was winless in his three previous college matches against Nelson heading into their finals battle on the big stage, but the tide actually began to turn this past summer. The pair met at the 2013 U.S. World Team Trials in June, where Gwiazdowski beat Nelson twice in the same day to place third and finish one spot shy of making the USA World Team. That pair of victories obviously lifted his confidence, but the wins came in freestyle wrestling, one of the two styles competed in at the Olympics. College wrestling uti- lizes folkstyle wrestling, which is quite different in rules and scoring. When the two met in the finals of the Southern Scuffle this January — their third time wrestling in college — Gwiazdowski came closer than ever against his rival in folkstyle, and his confidence continued to climb despite a 1-0 loss. "That was a big game-changer over the summer when I beat him twice," Gwiaz- dowski explained. "Then when he beat me in January, it wasn't really a setback. I just needed to make some changes, and I did. I knew if I got to his leg, I needed to be aggressive and score on it, and that's what I did [at nationals]. Also, him knowing I Gwiazdowski claimed the NCAA title by defeating two-time defending national champion Tony Nelson of Minnesota in the championship bout, 4-2, on March 22. PHOTOS BY MIRROR IMAGE PHOTOGRAPHY 26-28.Wrestling NCAA Champion.indd 27 4/29/14 12:02 PM

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